What is a personal identification number? When is the personal identification number used instead of a tax identification number in Vietnam?

What is a personal identification number?

According to Clause 1, Article 11 of Decree 70/2024/ND-CP, it is stipulated that each Vietnamese citizen, when their information is collected into the National Population Database by the identity management agency of the Ministry of Public Security, is assigned a unique personal identification number, which does not duplicate any other individual.

To be specific, according to Article 12 of the Law on Identity 2023, the personal identification number of a Vietnamese citizen is a sequence of 12 natural numbers established by the National Population Database for Vietnamese citizens.

The personal identification number for a Vietnamese citizen is used for issuing identity cards, extracting citizen information in the National Population Database, and in other national databases, specialized databases, national data centers, and public service portals, as well as in managing administrative procedures.

Previously, Article 13 of Decree 137/2015/ND-CP (expired from July 1, 2024) stipulated that the personal identification number was a 12-digit natural number structured as follows:

- The first three digits: represent the code of the province or centrally-governed city or the national code where the citizen was born registered (e.g., Hanoi is 001, Ho Chi Minh City is 079...).

- The next digit: indicates the birth century and gender of the citizen. For those born in the 20th century, male is coded as 0 and female as 1. For those born in the 21st century, male is coded as 2 and female as 3.

- The next two digits: represent the birth year of the citizen.

- The last six digits: are random numbers.

Currently, the law has not defined what a personal identification number is, but it can be understood that the personal identification number is also the number on the Citizen Identity Card (12 digits), used for connecting, updating, sharing, and extracting citizen information in the National Population Database and other national and specialized databases managed uniformly nationwide by the Ministry of Public Security, and is issued to each Vietnamese citizen, not duplicated with others.

What is a personal identification number? When is the personal identification number used instead of a tax identification number in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

When is the personal identification number used instead of the tax identification number in Vietnam?

According to Clause 7, Article 35 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019, concerning the use of tax identification number s, when the personal identification number is issued to the entire population, this number will then be used instead of the tax identification number .

Additionally, based on point b of Clause 1 and Clause 5 of Article 5 of Circular 86/2024/TT-BTC, which governs the structure of tax identification number s for households, business households, and individuals effective from February 6, 2025, as follows:

tax identification number Structure

1. tax identification number s include tax identification number s for enterprises, organizations, and tax identification number s for households, business households, and individuals. Where:
...

b) tax identification number s for households, business households, and individuals are tax identification number s assigned by the tax authority for cases specified in points a, đ, e, h of Clause 4 of this Article; they are the personal identification number issued by the Ministry of Public Security according to identity law for cases using the personal identification number in place of the tax identification number as stipulated in Clause 5 of this Article.

...

5. The personal identification number of Vietnamese citizens, as issued by the Ministry of Public Security under the identity law, is a sequence of 12 natural numbers used in lieu of the tax identification number of individual taxpayers and dependents as specified in points k, l, n of Clause 2, Article 4 of this Circular; likewise, the personal identification number of the household representative, business household representative, and individual business are used instead of the tax identification number of that household, business household, individual business.

According to Article 38 of Circular 86/2024/TT-BTC effective from February 6, 2025, superseding Circular 105/2020/TT-BTC dated December 3, 2020, from the Ministry of Finance providing guidance on taxpayer registration, except for the following provisions:

+ tax identification number s assigned by the tax authority to individuals, households, and business households will continue until June 30, 2025.

+ From July 1, 2025, taxpayers, tax management agencies, and other relevant organizations and individuals concerning the usage of tax identification number s as per Article 35 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019 shall use the personal identification number in place of the tax identification number .

Thus, from July 1, 2025, the personal identification number will completely replace the tax identification number for individuals, households, and business households.

What is the structure of tax identification numbers issued by the Tax Authority in Vietnam?

Based on Clause 2, Article 5 of Circular 86/2024/TT-BTC (effective from February 6, 2025), stipulating the structure of tax identification number s issued by the tax authority as follows:

N1N2 N3N4N5N6N7N8N9 N10 - N11N12N13

Where:

- The first two digits N1N2 are the tax identification number section number.

- The seven digits N3N4N5N6N7N8N9 are structured in a defined manner, increasing in order from 0000001 to 9999999.

- The digit N10 is the check digit.

- The three digits N11N12N13 are sequential numbers from 001 to 999.

- The hyphen (-) is used to separate the initial group of 10 digits from the final group of 3 digits.